US judge rejects evidence against gambling kingpin Paul Phua

Malaysian gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei Seng and his son alleged ran an illegal sports betting operation out of the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. They were arrested last year. – Flickr pic, February 3, 2015.

A United States federal judge has recommended tossing out evidence against Malaysian gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei Seng and his son over their alleged running of an illegal sports betting operation run out of the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported yesterday that magistrate judge Peggy Leen on Monday found that “false and misleading statements” were made by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in a sworn affidavit they submitted in seeking a judge’s permission to search the villas on July 9 last year.

The judge said that the search warrant affidavit was “fatally flawed” and lacked probable cause to support the search, the newspaper reported.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the prosecutors were now reviewing Leen’s findings and they have 14 days to respond. They also have the option of objecting to the judge's recommendations with the US district judge presiding over the case.

The FBI agents had cut Internet service to the villa on July 5, and then posed as computer technicians to enter the residence.

They failed to disclose that visit to the villa in getting authorisation for the July 9 raid, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Leen said the failure to disclose the ruse was the only “material omission” in the search warrant affidavit.

She said the magistrate who approved the search warrant should have been given that information to help her determine whether agents had demonstrated probable cause for the July 9 search.

However, in a separate decision also filed on Monday, Leen said the FBI agents were within their authority to carry out the ruse as technicians when the Phuas allowed them into the villa.

Leen said the Phuas were “tricked,” but “assumed the risk” when they let the agents inside the villa. Cell phones, computers, iPads and other electronic equipment were seized from the villa during the raid.

Phua's counsel David Chesnoff and co-defence counsel Thomas Goldstein had argued that the search was unconstitutional. 

Chesnoff hailed the judge's finding that the search warrant was flawed as a "triumph for citizens everywhere".

Phua, 50, and his son, Darren, 22, were among eight defendants charged in the multimillion-dollar betting scheme during the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

Five defendants from Malaysia and China pleaded guilty in December and were each fined and sentenced to five years of probation with the condition they stay out of the United States during that period.

The case against a sixth defendant was dismissed.

Prosecutors have alleged that Phua has ties to an Asian crime syndicate and his group made a US$13 million (RM47 million) profit in June and July accepting World Cup bets in the scheme that stretched to Macau.

Phua and his lawyers strongly deny the link to organised crime.

The Sarawakian and his son are currently free on a combined US$2.5 million bail posted by two other professional poker players.

Phua is widely known at Las Vegas poker tables.

Leen also said in one of her decisions that the FBI had failed to explain in the affidavit how they know that Phua was a member of the notorious Hong Kong-based 14K triad.

Phua's case has attracted wide media attention in his native Malaysia, after it was leaked that Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had written to the FBI in December to clear the gambler from links with the 14K triad.

Zahid reportedly wrote the letter at the request of Phua's lawyers. The senior minister had added in the letter that Phua had previously assisted the Malaysian government in some national security matters.

Zahid came under heavy fire for writing the letter, which was exposed by the South China Morning Post on December 31.

- TMI